CIMON back on Earth after 14 months on the ISS

NASA astronaut Christina Koch photographed the Dragon capsule of SpaceX18 from the ISS over the Canadian Rocky Mountains on 27 August 2019. Among other things, the capsule brought the German technology demonstration CIMON back to Earth.

On 15 November 2018 CIMON, a technology experiment developed and built in Germany, was used for the first time aboard the International Space Station. The interactive and mobile astronaut assistant is equipped with artificial intelligence and is part of the current horizons mission of the German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst.

Credit:
ESA.

The new CIMON during tests inside the Columbus laboratory training model

The new CIMON being put through its paces inside the European Columbus laboratory training model at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne (from left): DLR project manager Christian Karrasch, Airbus project staff member and Bernd Rattenbacher from the BIOTESC user support centre at the University of Lucerne.

On 27 August 2019, the robotic astronaut assistant CIMON, which was developed and built in Germany, returned from the International Space Station on board the SpaceX CRS-18 spacecraft

A successor model of the technology experiment with extended functionality is currently being built and tested by Airbus on behalf of the DLR Space Administration; the 'second' CIMON also uses IBM 'Watson' artificial intelligence technology and he scientific aspects of the assistance system were co-developed and supervised by a team at Ludwig-Maximilian University Hospital in Munich

Focus: Space, artificial intelligence

The Crew Interactive Mobile CompaniON (CIMON) mobile astronaut assistant, which is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), returned to Earth on 27 August 2019. The SpaceX CRS-18 Dragon spacecraft carrying CIMON was undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 16:59 CEST; the capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean approximately 480 kilometres southwest of Los Angeles and was recovered at 22:21 CEST.

"We expect CIMON to return to Germany at the end of October," reports Christian Karrasch, CIMON Project Manager at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Space Administration. He looks back on the past few months: "CIMON is a technology demonstration that has completely met our expectations. During its initial operation in space – a 90-minute mission with the German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst on the ISS in November 2018 – it showed that it functions well in microgravity conditions and can interact successfully with astronauts. We are very proud to have been the first to use AI on the Space Station and have been working for several months on an improved successor model. With CIMON, we were able to lay the foundations for human assistance systems in space to support astronauts in their tasks and perhaps, in the future, to take over some of their work."

The new CIMON – like its predecessor – will be built by Airbus in Friedrichshafen and Bremen on behalf of the DLR Space Administration with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Airbus in Friedrichshafen has assembled and tested the new CIMON hardware. Airbus in Bremen is working on improving the software for flight and attitude control, while IBM is implementing new functions for the AI. Till Eisenberg, CIMON Project Manager at Airbus says: "Overall, there are several upgrades such as better microphones, a more robust computer, improved flight and attitude control, and new software features for conversation, such as speech recognition, call history and intent analysis."

Matthias Biniok, Project Manager at IBM, adds: “With CIMON we have a unique application case in an extreme working environment. We have seen that we can use AI – in our case IBM Watson – to support the work of astronauts. The further development of CIMON will primarily address improved contextual language comprehension and linguistic emotional analysis.”

Ethical questions concerning the future use of CIMON will be examined and evaluated by physicians at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich. Personal rights are impacted through the interaction between human and machine, because images and audio of the astronaut are recorded, processed and interpreted by CIMON. High technical standards in the field of data security are necessary, and trust in such a system is important when working in a team consisting of humans and machines. Specifically, what is CIMON allowed to do, know and say? "The new CIMON has a built-in switch that enables the data streams from all cameras and microphones to be interrupted from the ISS. The astronaut has control over CIMON at all times, which was especially important for us," stresses LMU researcher Judith Buchheim.

The DLR Space Administration, which manages Germany's contributions to the European Space Agency (ESA), is working with ESA to deliver the new CIMON to the ISS in December 2019 and to obtain crew time with astronauts.

CIMON arrived on the ISS as a technology demonstration on 2 July 2018. On 15 November 2018, the robotic assistant with the smart 'face' undertook its globally acclaimed mission. For 90 minutes, it 'worked' successfully with Alexander Gerst. CIMON proved its basic functionality – its flight characteristics in microgravity – with autonomous navigation through several rotations and movements in all directions. It also searched for and recognised Gerst's face, made eye contact with him, and spoke to him. Additionally, CIMON displayed the instructions for an experiment on its screen, played music, and acquired video and images of the astronaut.

In 2018, the CIMON project won the US 'Popular Science Award' in the category 'Best of What's New in 2018' for space. Airbus was also awarded the 'German Innovation Award 2019' in the category 'Large Enterprises'.

CIMON – the idea

Developed and built in Germany, CIMON is a technology experiment to support astronauts and increase the efficiency of their work. CIMON is able to show and explain information, instructions for scientific experiments and repairs. Voice-controlled access to documents and media is an advantage, as the astronauts can keep both hands free. CIMON can also be used as a mobile camera to save astronaut crew time. It could perform routine tasks, such as documenting experiments, searching for objects and taking inventory. CIMON is also able to see, hear, understand and speak. Its 'eyes' are a stereo camera used for orientation, as well as a high-resolution camera for facial recognition and two additional, lateral cameras for imaging and video documentation. Ultrasonic sensors measure distances to detect potential collisions. CIMON's 'ears' consist of eight microphones used to detect the direction of sound sources and an additional directional microphone for good voice recognition. Its mouth is a loudspeaker that can be used to speak or to play music. At the heart of the AI for language understanding is IBM's Watson AI technology from the IBM Cloud. CIMON is not equipped with self-training capabilities and requires active human instruction. The AI used for autonomous navigation was contributed by Airbus and is designed for movement planning and object recognition. Twelve internal rotors allow CIMON to move and revolve freely in all directions. This means it can turn toward the astronaut when addressed. It can also nod or shake its head and follow the astronaut either autonomously or on command.

CIMON – the partners

The development and construction of the interactive astronaut assistant was commissioned by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Space Administration, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and implemented by Airbus in Friedrichshafen and Bremen. The Watson AI technology from the IBM Cloud is used for voice-controlled artificial intelligence. The human aspects of the assistance system were co-developed and supervised by scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians University Hospital in Munich (LMU). A project team of approximately 50 people from DLR, Airbus, IBM and LMU have been working on the implementation of CIMON since August 2016. CIMON has been on board the ISS since 2 July 2018. It is no coincidence that its name is reminiscent of Simon Wright, the robot assistant – the 'flying brain' – from the science-fiction comic and series 'Captain Future'.